Fossil fuel opponents having tough time making credible argument

By Alex Mills

Published 11:14 am, Thursday, May 1, 2014

Advocates for enacting laws to reduce the use of crude oil and natural gas are having a tough time making a credible argument lately. They contend that fossil fuels burned by man allegedly create greenhouse gases that cause temperatures to rise resulting in catastrophe after catastrophe across the globe.

However, temperatures actually have declined during the past 17 years, greenhouse gas emissions continue to drop, and countries that are burning fossil fuels have a better standard of living than countries with high levels of poverty.

EPA attributed the decline to reduced emissions from electricity generation. Natural gas has backed out a lot of coal as an electric generation fuel.

However, many environmental groups continue to advocate that state and federal governments ban hydraulic fracturing, one reason why the industry has been able to increase production of natural gas and crude oil.

Those who have built their greenhouse gas arguments around banning fracking are finding it more difficult gain traction when fracking is a primary reason for increased production that has resulted in reduced greenhouse gas emissions and reduced imports.

The Congressional Research Service recently reported that while oil and gas production on private lands in the U.S. increased, the opposite has been true on lands owned by the federal government, which are huge areas, especially in the Rocky Mountain area.

The CRS said oil production on federal lands fell by 11 percent and natural gas production fell by 28 percent from 2009 to 2013.

The energy industry and some federal lawmakers have long criticized the Obama administration for saddling energy producers with lengthy permitting times and environmental review processes.

Now Playing:

While energy production on federal lands has fallen in recent years, production on private and state lands has boomed, according to CRS. Oil production on non-federal lands has soared by 61 percent since 2009 and natural gas production has jumped up 33 percent during that time.

Last year, the Obama administration sold the lowest amount of oil and gas leases since 1988 and approved the fewest drilling permits since 2002. Getting a permit approved on federal lands takes 194 days on average, according to government data. Drilling permits on state lands can take anywhere from a few days to about one month.